Rectangular and triangular blocks with means enabling one pin to connect three blocks

ABSTRACT

A set of rectangular and triangular building blocks of uniform thickness having holes around their peripheral side faces with the centers of the holes being spaced apart a distance equal to the thickness of the blocks and the centers of the end holes being a distance of about one-half the block thickness from the respective face ends. The holes include some enabling a single straight dowel to connect two rectangular blocks, each parallel to a respective side face of a triangular block lying therebetween.

United States Patent [72] Inventor David A. Winer 88 Balcort Drive,Princeton, NJ. 08540 [2]] Appl. No. 759,732 [22] Filed Sept. I3, I968[45] Patented Sept. 14, I971 [54] RECTANGULAR AND TRIANGULAR BLOCKS WITHMEANS ENABLING ONE PIN TO CONNECT THREE BLOCKS I Claim, 4 Drawing Figs.

[52] U.S.Cl 46/26 A63h 33/12 Field of Search 46/26, I6, 17

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 604,708 5/1898 Burton 46/261,216,840 2/1917 Ramsey et al 46/26 Primary ExaminerF. Barry ShayAttorneySmythe & Moore ABSTRACT: A set of rectangular and triangularbuilding blocks of uniform thickness having holes around theirperipheral side faces with the centers of the holes being spaced apart adistance equal to the thickness of the blocks and the centers of the endholes being a distance of about one half the block thickness from therespective face ends. The holes include some enabling a single straightdowel to connect two rectangular blocks, each parallel to a respectiveside face of a triangular block lying therebetween.

PATENTED SEP 1 415m 3504.14

mv mg; Dav/0 wz/ ATTORNEYS RECTANGULAR AND TRIANGULAR BLOCKS WITH MEANSENABLING ONE PIN TO CONNECT THREE BLOCKS The present invention relatesto toy building blocks and more particularly to such building blocks ofrectangular and triangular shapes having holes along their peripheralfaces so that blocks may be interconnected by dowel pins inserted incorresponding holes in the adjoining blocks.

A wide variety of forms of toy building blocks has been devised in orderthat different structures may be constructed. Such building blocks maybe generally classified as those which may be'interconnected to eachother and those which merely rest upon each other. Various structureshave been provided for interconnecting blocks in which theinterconnecting structures are either integral with the blocks orseparate therefrom, such as dowel pins or the like. While it is desiredthat the block and interconnecting structures be as simple as possible,nevertheless, certain dimensional relationships are desired between theblocks and their interconnecting structures so as to facilitate theassembly of the blocks into rather complicated structures such asbuildings and the like. For many purposes, blocks having sockets intheir faces into which dowels are inserted so as to interconnectadjacent blocks have been found to be suitable since the resultingstructures are rigid yet simple to assemble. However, such blocks aregenerally unsatisfactory since the dimension relationship between theblock size and the spacing of the socket holes does not permit the readyassembly of the blocks into complex structures.

An object of the present'invention is to provide an improved set ofbuilding blocks.

Another object of the invention is to provide building blocks havingsockets along their faces for the insertion of dowels therein, therebeing a particular dimensional relationship between the spacing of thesockets and the sizes of the blocks.

A further object of the invention is to provide a set of toy buildingblocks of rectangular and triangular shapes which are interconnected bydowels inserted in sockets positioned in the faces of the blocks.

In one aspect of the invention, a rectangular block may be providedhaving a uniform thickness with opposed parallel rectangular surfacesand side faces around the peripheral edges. A plurality of holes areprovided in the side faces along the centerlines with the holesterminating short of the opposite side face. The centers of the holesare spaced apart a distance substantially equal to the thickness of theblock. The centers of the end holes on on each face are a distance equalto onehalf the block thickness from the respective face end. The holesare perpendicular to their respective faces.

The triangular blocks have parallel opposing faces in the shape of righttriangles with holes provided in the side faces. The end hole in thelonger side away from the right angle passes through the block to thehypotenuse face of the block.

Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will becomeapparent from the following description and accompanying drawings, whichare merely exemplary.

In the'drawings:

FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view of a rectangular building blockaccording to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the building block illustrated in FIG. I;

FIG. 3v is an elevational view of an assembly of building blocksaccording to the invention and showing a triangular block; and

FIG. 4 is an overall perspective view of a roof block accordingto theinvention. 7

In the drawings and description hereafter, like reference symbolsindicatethe same partsthroughout the various views and specificembodiments of the-invention.

As may be'seen in'FIG. I, there is illustrated a rectangular buildingblock 10 having opposed parallel, rectangular faces I1 and I2, opposedlonger side faces 13 and 14, and opposed shorter side faces 15 and 16.The thickness of the block is indicated by T.

Along the centerlines of each of the faces 13-16 there is provided aplurality of holes 17 which terminate short of the opposed face and maybe said to be in the nature of sockets. The distances between thecenters of the holes is T, and the distance between the center of an endhole and its respective end face is one-half the thickness of the blockor T/2.

Each hole 17 is perpendicular to its respective face and snugly receivesa dowel pin 18. The length of the dowel pin is about twice the depth ofa hole so that half the length of an inserted pin protrudes beyond theface of a block as may be seen in FIG. 2. y

In FIG. 3, there is illustrated a triangular block 20 in accordance withthe present invention which has opposed triangular faces 21 in the shapeof a right triangle and side faces 22 and 23 interconnected by ahypotenuse face 24. A plurality of holes 25 are similarly spaced alongthe side faces 22 and 23 with the same dimensional relationship of theholes as described above. Hole 26, which is the end hole in the longerface 23 away from the right angle, passes through the block to open onthe hypotenuse face 24. A dowel pin 27 may be positioned in arectangular block 10 and passes through the triangular block 21 toproject beyond the hypotenuse face 24.

To increase the variety-of structures which may be made and tofacilitate the assembly, it is preferred that the longer side of arectangular block should be twice the length of a shorter side. The samerelationship should exist between the longer and shorter sides of thetriangular building block. By way of example, the longer sides of therectangular and triangular building blocks may be 4 inches and theshorter sides 2 inches.

When using the blocks to construct a building, the triangular blocks maybe used to determine the pitch of the roof. Thus, the rise of the roofwill be 2 inches over a 4-inch run, and the hypotenuse of the triangularblock will be approximately 4% inches. The roof may be formed by roofblocks 30, FIGS. 3 and 4, the width of the roof blocks being 1% inchesso that three of the blocks may be positioned along the hypotenuse ofthe triangular blocks, as shown in FIG. 3. The roof blocks 30 haveinclined sockets or openings 31 in at least one face thereof to receivethe protruding end of the dowel pin 27 as shown in FIG. 3. In addition,socket openings 32, having the same relationships as the correspondingopenings I7 in the rectangular blocks, are provided along the edges ofthe roof blocks.

The length of roof block 30 may vary but preferably would be 8 inches ortwice the length of the longer sides of the rectangular and triangularblocks. While intended primarily for the construction of roofs ofbuildings, the roof blocks may be used for a variety of other structuresbecause of their elongated, flat characteristic and the disposition ofthe socket openings adjacent the ends thereof.

While a preferred dimensional relationship between the lengths andwidths of the rectangular, triangular, and roof blocks has been setforth above, it is pointed out that other length relationships may beemployed depending on the specific applications intended for the blocks.However, regardless of the length relationships of the blocks, the samespacing is employed between the centers of the holes so that a widevariety of sizes of blocks may be interconnected to assemble a number ofdifferent structures.

Thus, it can be seen that the present invention employs a set of toybuilding blocks comprising essentially rectangular, triangular, and roofblocks which, because of the dimensional spacing between socket holesand their faces, may be assembled into a wide variety of shapes by theuse of interconnecting dowel pins. The use of the dowel pins insertedinsocket openings producesa rigid structure but permits easy assembly ofthe blocks so that children of young ages may enjoyfull use of theblocks.

It is to be understood that changes in various details of constructionand arrangement of parts may be made without departing from the spiritof the invention except as defined in the appended claims.

1. In combination with a plurality of rectangular blocks of 5 uniformthickness having opposed parallel rectangular faces and opposed sidefaces, a plurality of triangular blocks of said uniform thickness, eachhaving parallel opposed surfaces in the shape of a right triangle withone side being longer than the other, there being side faces and ahypotenuse face around the peripheral edges thereof, there being aplurality of holes in each of said side faces and in said hypotenuseface along the centerlines thereof, the centers of the holes in saidside faces being spaced apart a distance substantially equal to thethickness of the block, the centers of the end holes on said side facesbeing a distance equal to one-half the block thickness from therespective face end, the end hole in said longer side face away fromthe'right angle passing completely through said triangular block to thehypotenuse face thereof, the holes in the side faces being perpendicularto the respective side faces and the holes in said hypotenuse face beingperpendicular to the longer opposed side face of the respectivetriangular block, at least one of said rectangular blocks having a holein one of its rectangular faces, said rectangular face hole beinginclined relative to said rectangular face to have its axis aligned withthe axis of said end hole when said rectangular face is parallel to saidhypotenuse face, so that a pin can pass through said end hole in thelonger face into rectangular blocks placed on either side thereof tohold the blocks in assembled relation, and the remaining holes in saidside faces and hypotenuse face terminating short of an opposing face.

1. In combination with a plurality of rectangular blocks of uniformthickness having opposed parallel rectangular faces and opposed sidefaces, a plurality of triangular blocks of said uniform thickness, eachhaving parallel opposed surfaces in the shape of a right triangle withone side being longer than the other, there being side faces and ahypotenuse face around the peripheral edges thereof, there being aplurality of holes in each of said side faces and in said hypotenuseface along the centerlines thereof, the centers of the holes in saidside faces being spaced apart a distance substantially equal to thethickness of the block, the centers of the end holes on said side facesbeing a distance equal to one-half the block thickness from therespective face end, the end hole in said longer side face away from theright angle passing completely through said triangular block to thehypotenuse face thereof, the holes in the side faces being perpendicularto the respective side faces and the holes in said hypotenuse face beingperpendicular to the longer opposed side face of the respectivetriangular block, at least one of said rectangular blocks having a holein one of its rectangular faces, said rectangular face hole beinginclined relative to said rectangular face to have its axis aligned withthe axis of said end hole when said rectangular face is parallel to saidhypotenuse face, so that a pin can pass through said end hole in thelonger face into rectangular blocks placed on either side thereof tohold the blocks in assembled relation, and the remaining holes in saidside faces and hypotenuse face terminating short of an opposing face.